Stars celebrate 23-3 win over the  Wranglers in 1984 Championship

Long before Kelly led the Buffalo Bills

to four Super Bowls, he threw 83 touchdowns

and passed for more than 9,800

yards during his two years as the quarterback

of the Houston Gamblers.

Twenty years later, Kelly still feels like

he missed a great opportunity to bring

the Gamblers’ Run-and-Shoot offense

to New York and play alongside a back

of Walker’s caliber. “Without a doubt,

talk about a dream team—what do you

think?” said Kelly, when asked if he would

have liked to play for the Generals.

But the USFL never kicked off the

1986 season. No passes were thrown,

no quarterbacks sacked, no points were

scored in another USFL game.

Yet the USFL is still alive and thriving

within the modern day NFL. The

controversial use of instant replay and

the two-point conversion were used

long before the NFL adopted these

changes. The USFL was also a testmarket

for pro football in cities like

Phoenix, Ariz., Memphis, Tenn., and

Jacksonville, Fla.

Players like Steve Young, Reggie

White, Kelly and Walker had a tremendous

impact on the NFL landscape for

years to come.

In addition to instant replay and the

two-point conversion, the league was

a breath of fresh air with innovations

like the 18 game schedule, drafting

underclassmen and “territorial” college

drafts—meaning teams like the Arizona

Wranglers would have more leverage in

signing players from Arizona State and

the University of Arizona.

to four Super Bowls, he threw 83 touchdowns

and passed for more than 9,800

yards during his two years as the quarterback

of the Houston Gamblers.

Twenty years later, Kelly still feels like

he missed a great opportunity to bring

the Gamblers’ Run-and-Shoot offense

to New York and play alongside a back

of Walker’s caliber. “Without a doubt,

talk about a dream team—what do you

think?” said Kelly, when asked if he would

have liked to play for the Generals.

But the USFL never kicked off the

1986 season. No passes were thrown,

no quarterbacks sacked, no points were

scored in another USFL game.

Yet the USFL is still alive and thriving

within the modern day NFL. The

controversial use of instant replay and

the two-point conversion were used

long before the NFL adopted these

changes. The USFL was also a testmarket

for pro football in cities like

Phoenix, Ariz., Memphis, Tenn., and

Jacksonville, Fla.

Players like Steve Young, Reggie

White, Kelly and Walker had a tremendous

impact on the NFL landscape for

years to come.

In addition to instant replay and the

two-point conversion, the league was

a breath of fresh air with innovations

like the 18 game schedule, drafting

underclassmen and “territorial” college

drafts—meaning teams like the Arizona

Wranglers would have more leverage in

signing players from Arizona State and

the University of Arizona.

Unlike the NFL, the USFL wanted

to promote and spotlight its players.

The NFL wanted the team’s logo to be

the only identifiable source for its fans,

but the USFL wanted college stars like

Walker, Young, Kelly and White to be

the face of the new spring league.

Yet in the 2005 NFL draft, more than

30 college players were underclassmen—a

prime example of the lasting effects the

USFL continues to have on professional

footbal today.

More than 9 million fans passed

through the turnstiles to watch USFL

games, but when the Baltimore Stars beat

the Oakland Invaders 28-24 in the USFL

Championship on July 14, 1985, it was

the last game ever for the spring league.

It was the end of a dream for many

players like Stars QB Chuck Fusina and

the start of a brave new world for players

like Sam Mills, Bobby Hebert, Bart

Oates, Maurice Carthon and more.

At the annual owner’s meeting on Aug.

22, 1984 in Chicago, the USFL voted to

switch from a spring to a fall schedule beginning

in 1986. Many owners felt pressure

from Donald Trump, owner of the N.J.

Generals, to move to the fall and go headto-

head with the mighty NFL.

In the spring of 1986, the USFL filed

a $1.7 billion antitrust suit against the

NFL in a Manhattan District Court.

The highly publicized trial had Raiders

owner Al Davis testify against the NFL

as well as testimony from legendary ABC

sportscaster Howard Cosell.

Steve Ehrhart, a former USFL executive

and general manager of the Memphis

Showboats, still holds the check the

NFL had to pay the USFL for violating

the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. According

to legal documents retrieved from the

case, USFL v. NFL, “the NFL was found

guilty of unlawful monopolization of professional

football that injured the USFL,

and the jury found the NFL had willfully

acquired or maintained a monopoly power

in a market consisting of major-league

pro football in the United States.”

However, the victory didn’t mean a

landfall of money for the USFL. The jury

awarded the USFL $1, which was trebled

according to antitrust law to $3. The total,

including interest, came to $3.76.

The USFL did collect more than $20

million in court costs a few years later,

but by then “the spirit of the league had

evaporated,” Ehrhart said.

The $3.76 check remains in Ehrhart’s

desk at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis,

Tenn.

Was that all the league was worth?